Building upgrade underway for Christchurch Art Gallery

A technology that allows a building to effectively
“float” on its foundations during an earthquake is about
to be applied to Christchurch Art Gallery.

The
base-isolation building upgrade will be installed during
phase two of the Gallery’s repair programme, which gets
underway next week.

A consortium comprising Fulton
Hogan, Ruamoko Solutions, Warren and Mahoney, and Norman,
Disney & Young has been awarded the $20 million contract to
complete the upgrade. They will also carry out an additional
$14 million worth of insurance repairs to the Gallery’s
earthquake-damaged interior.

Director Jenny Harper
says the base-isolation technology and other measures will
mean that Christchurch Art Gallery is one of the safest and
most earthquake-resilient galleries in the world.

“The Gallery is a place for people to visit and enjoy,
but it is also a building which needs to protect the
city’s irreplaceable and much-loved collection
treasures,” she says.

“Christchurch has now
become known internationally as a seismic city. If we want
to attract significant loans of art from overseas, we need
to be able to prove that we can keep them safe.

“To put things in perspective, some works of art we
might bring to Christchurch are worth hundreds of millions
of dollars — much more than the Gallery building itself.
So it’s vital that we meet the highest international
standards in terms of earthquake resilience.”

Thomas Jones, Project Director, Christchurch City
Council, says the Council is adopting best-practice methods
to repair and reinstate the Gallery’s building.

“The base-isolation technology is well-proven and has
been applied to other national buildings such as the Museum
of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the Parliament
Buildings, as well as many other museums and galleries in
the Pacific Rim,” he says.

“It works by
installing a large bearing between the building and its
foundations. This effectively allows it to float during an
earthquake, significantly reducing the seismic stress on the
building and its contents.”

In addition to
upgrading the building’s foundations, a secondary
electrical system will be installed to add greater backup
for the Gallery’s essential services, such as lighting and
climate-control systems. Repairs will also be carried out to
the iconic glass façade and the interior of the Gallery
refurbished.

Gallery staff will leave the building
at the end of this month and relocate to office spaces at 82
Peterborough Street and an area which Canterbury Museum has
made available, until repair works are completed next
year.

Ms Harper says the Gallery’s second phase of
repairs is another step forward for Christchurch’s art
lovers and visitors.

“There’s a sense that the
Gallery is on the home straight now,” she says.

“It’s another big milestone for us and for everybody
looking forward to our reopening late next year.”

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